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We have guests arriving over the holidays. Our dog jumps up on people. We would like to work on this problem. Time is short. What’s the best way to address this matter so visitors are not knocked over?

Teaching a dog to greet visitors politely doesn’t take an extreme amount of time. However, good training will take some time. This is especially true when eliminating well established bad habits.

Consistent results come with practice. It includes rehearsing or proofing with realistic distractions. Pets need to develop their skills. With the holidays being so close, there likely isn’t enough time to achieve fluency. Instead, view the holidays as an opportunity to train.

Training takes focus from the human. Put the dog away if arrivals and departures are too chaotic or do not allow for your undivided attention. Bring the dog out on a leash and train when your full attention can be on the dog.

This strikes a balance between reasonable goals and giving guests the opportunity to enter the home.

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Our dog loves to play fetch. However, there are times when my arm wants a rest. I do not want to play fetch when watching a sports game on television. She becomes a pest, insisting that I play. Short of taking her ball away, is there anything I can do so that she learns that there is a time to play and a time to relax?

Dogs benefit greatly from exercise. Some dogs take it too far. People begin to feel like the dog’s entertainment system. Constant pestering quickly becomes obnoxious.

Few families want to eliminate all interaction. They simply want to control it. After all, games are fun for people too.

The underlying problem is that the dog does not know when to play and when to relax. Both are appropriate behaviours at certain times. Problems develop when families send mixed messages and fail to set clear messages.

Some days they give in to demands, assuming they can watch television and exercise the dog simultaneously. They throw the ball. The next day, during a riveting show or after a long day, the rules change. Attention seeking becomes irritating and unwanted. The dog is only doing what was reinforced, or rewarded, previously.

Address the problem by working out routines and rules as a family. Consistency matters. It is easier for dogs to understand the expectations if everyone is on the same page.

Pay particular attention to the context of various situations. For example, dogs can learn to lie down with a bone if the television is on. The television acts as information that tells the dog that play is off limits. Alternatively, dogs can learn that fetch only happens in a specific room. Still, others decide that games happen only if humans initiate the play. Any of these are fine so long as the message is consistent.

Context, or information surrounding the dog, helps them to determine which behaviours are appropriate at that time. It’s similar to knowing that appropriate behaviour for work is different from that at a club. Working at a club is strange. Drinking at work is not likely appropriate. Context dictates how we should behave. Similarly, dogs learn how to behave based on context in their environment.

As new context rules are put in place, dogs may struggle when owners refuse to play in situations where fetch was previously encouraged. Make the transition easier by training the dog to lie down and relax using positive reinforcement. Learning new skills will keep the dog occupied so they have less opportunity to revert to pestering.

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